IIT JEE Advanced 2022: Why fewer candidates registering for the entrance test every year?

Read | JEE Advanced 2022 Result Live Updates

The number as well percentage of students was lowest (for the period being discussed) in 2021 when only 1.5 lakh of the 2.6 lakh eligible candidates — 58.1 per cent — registered to take the final examination, which would determine admissions to 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) across the country. At 64.1 per cent, the previous year (2020) had 1.60 lakh students registering out of the 2.5 lakh who had passed the JEE-Main.

A steady drop could also be noticed across the years at 79 per cent, 78.6 per cent, 77.4 per cent, 71.7 per cent, and 71.7 per cent in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, respectively.

Experts believe this is because students choose other engineering colleges based on their JEE-Main rank and that it is not indicative of a lack of interest in the IITs.

“Many students with a lower JEE-Main rank are not sure of bagging a IIT seat after appearing in the final exam. However, JEE-Main score can secure a seat in a good engineering institute,” said a senior professor from IIT Bombay who wished to stay anonymous.

A senior official from IIT Kanpur said: “The competition for IIT is really tough, considering the limited seats. Even as there has been an increase in the number of IITs and seats thereof, it is still a very small number when compared to this huge pool of aspiring students. A large number of students who have lower ranks in JEE-Main opt out of the IIT race and take admission somewhere else in their preferred stream.”

A similar opinion was echoed by Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director, IIT Bombay (the organising IIT for the JEE Advanced this year): “Based on their performance in Main, some students realise that it is better not to prolong the agony by going for the Advanced test when they can secure a career option elsewhere.”

Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi, Director of IIT Roorkee, said in the same vein that “students evaluate their chances of getting a seat in IIT…they are not interested in spending more time, money and energy on preparing for the JEE-Advanced”.

IIT Delhi’s former director, V Ramgopal Rao, was of the opinion that the branch of engineering also played a vital role in making the choice. “After JEE-Main, if someone is going to get a better stream at a National Institute of Technology, the candidate will most likely go for it, rather than settling for an engineering branch in an IIT he/she doesn’t not see a future in,” he said.